National Archaeological Museum

by Nikolaos Kaltsas, Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki, Rosa Proskinitopoulou

This brief guide informs the reader about the collections of the National Archaeological Museum and the wealth and variety of its exhibits, which span the long history of the ancient world. Rather than giving detailed descriptions of the various items on display, it gives general information about all the collections, with an emphasis on the way they are presented in the rooms of the Museum. At the same time it illustrates works which are representative of each collection and which bear witness to the artistic quality and value of the exhibits in the largest and most important museum in Greece.

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2010

About the author

Dr. Nikolaos Kaltsas is a highly accomplished classical archaeologist. From 2001 to 2012 he was the director of the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens.

Dr. Kaltsas studied archaeology at the University of Thessaloniki, receiving his doctorate in 1985. He joined the Ministry of Culture as curator of the sculpture collection at the National Archaeological Museum and from 2001 to 2012 held the position of director of the museum. Dr. Kaltsas managed the renovation of the National Museum and the permanent re-exhibitions of all collections.

He participated in excavations in the ancient cemetery of Akanthos in Chalkidiki and worked as curator in the Museum of Ancient Olympia from 1981 to 1983, where he directed excavations in Messenia. He also curated temporary exhibitions in the National Museum (Agon; Colored Gods: The Polychromy of Ancient Sculpture; Eretria; Myth and Coinage; The Antikythera Shipwreck: The Ship, the Treasures, the Mechanism) and in other cities (Paris: Eros, Amour des Dieux et des umains; Praxiteles; Basel: Eretria, Insights to an Ancient City; Berlin: Olympia; New York: Athens–Sparta; Worshiping Women; Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens)